Enoument
by Notsocoolio
Summary: Zuko is abused at home, and no one knows. After his third attempt at suicide, Iroh decides to take him in and move away, thinking it had something to do with school. At his new school, Zuko makes new friends and learns to recover.
1. Chapter 1

_Énoument: the bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self._

Zuko's eyes fluttered.

 _Zuko?_

He couldn't sure, but that might be his uncle. But his uncle was alive, wasn't he?

 _Zuko!_

And it faded to black.

Again, the darkness receded for a second, but it didn't seem right to him. There was supposed to be light at this end of the tunnel, not a dull grey, like he had only closed his eyes.

 _No._

It really couldn't be. He had tried so hard this third time, he had cut deep and long, and then pushed his under the water. He had no idea why he was alive. For a second, before he knew it wasn't possible, he thought it might have been Azula.

 _God, please no. I'm dead. I'm dead. I can't be alive. Don't let me live!_

He thrashed his body, his heart racing, and the pain from what he was certain was an IV scared him.

 _Please, please no! This has to be my personal version of Hell, right? I can't live through this anymore!_

He was sure his father was eating this up, using these circumstances for his political campaign, undoubtedly faking grief and using it to campaign against drugs, drunk driving, depression, pressure in school, etc. Nobody, not even his uncle, knew what his father did to him in the enclosed space of their house, or what his 'perfect' sister said to demean him. How she had pushed him into anxiety and his first attempt. He finally and truly given up. The first time he had been drunk and hurt, the second wasn't even a real attempt, and now third had failed as well.

 _All I had wanted was to never wake up again, was that really so hard…?_

For a blessed second, everything faded again, before it all lit up, and he knew he couldn't ignore everything any longer.

Zuko fluttered his eyes.

"Zuko?" Iroh spoke.

Zuko opened his eyes all the way, but curled away from the light, it burning him as if he were a vampire.

"Uncle…?"

"How are you feeling?" Iroh asked quietly, after Zuko's eyes had adjusted to the light.

Zuko looked at him.

"Hurts. Thirsty," his dry throat barely let him groan.

Iroh nodded and stood, walking to the door and opening it.

The movement caused him to actually take in his surroundings. The room was white, as expected, his bed placed in the middle. There was an IV attached to him, and the bag was pulled off to his right, along with his empty food cart. There was a window on the left, and large flat screen tv in front of him. The bed had grey, plastic rails and a white-and-brown checkered sheet. He was unfazed by the sheer bored feeling the room emitted, or the suffocating smell of death, illness, and sterility. Zuko had been there before. Different room, same design.

A woman came in with his uncle. She was black-haired and had a white lab coat.

"Hello, Zuko. My name Dr. Jean," she says with a smile, handing Zuko a glass of water.

Zuko knew from experience how fake this woman was, and he didn't want to deal with pretending to listen. He slowly drank his water, despite being horribly thirsty.

"I'm glad to see you're awake," Dr. Jean commented, looking at her clipboard. "The doctor taking care of you will be here in a moment, but I just wanted to ask you some questions."

"Um…"

"Would you like your uncle to step out?" at that, even without Zuko giving an answer, Iroh slipped out.

"Okay, with that settled, I'll get asking. How have you been feeling lately?"

"Like shit," Zuko said bluntly.

"That's too bad," Zuko cringed at that, "How is life at home?"

"Shit."

"Can you elaborate?"

"No."

"That's alright. Do you indulge in any narcotics?"

"Do alcohol and cigarettes count?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, yes," Zuko sighed, getting bored of this conversation already.

"How long have you been cutting?" Dr. Jean asked plainly.

Zuko hated that word, "cutting", as if he were some hormonal teenager looking for attention; he was only looking for an escape, but at the beginning he was too scared to take that last step. He had always been afraid that he'd lived to feel the horrendous pain that must come with cutting that deep, but eventually, he started cutting deeper and deeper, until it didn't matter anymore.

"A long time," Zuko finally answered.


	2. Chapter 2

When he was released from the hospital only a week after waking up, Zuko wasn't surprised. The doctors said to keep him under constant watch, but another meaning for that is, "Get the hell out, your rich father just paid me off."

He wasn't expecting his uncle to take it quite so seriously.

"You're staying with me," Iroh stated.

"What? Uncle, I-"

"You don't have to go back home, nor do you have to go back to school there. Nephew, you'll be staying with me now. Your father thought it best that I was the one to take care of you."

"But-"

"Come on, Nephew! It'll be fun! We'll drink tea and play Pai Sho!"

"Yes, Uncle," Zuko sighed. Staying away from that house was better anyways.

Zuko slided into the passenger seat of his uncle's old car, and turned towards the window, muting out his uncle's cheery blabbering.

He wished he had his headphones, a cigarette, and a roof to sit on. He'd feel one hundred times more comfortable doing what he usually does to get away. Not this. This was a little too much 'getting away' for him.

"We're here!" Iroh cheered, jolting Zuko awake.

Zuko put a hand on his chest, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"Uncle, you scared the shit out of me!"

"Well, we're here!" Iroh laughed.

Zuko stepped out of the vehicle and looked at his uncle's apartment.

"It's kind of… small," Zuko noted, trying to be polite.

The apartment building looked to be around 20-30 years old. It was grey and slightly run-down, having only nine apartments-three per floor-and stairs running up the left side. Even the parking lot was small, having only twelve parking spots, and two were handicapped.

"Well, of course. It's only us two here, and before now it was just me," Iroh said, a slightly sad look in his eye.

Zuko knew he was thinking of Lu Ten, and tried to spark up a conversation as they walked up the stairs.

"So, Uncle, um, what school am I going to-I mean, what is the school like here?" Zuko stuttered awkwardly, not used to talking to other people.

"Well, it has some nice kids-though I can't account for all of them-and they come to the tea shop quite often. Toph likes to try to beat me in Pai Sho, though she'll never manage it," Iroh chuckled.

"Why?"

"Because I'm the best of course!" Iroh roared, laughing loudly in triumph.

Zuko groaned. He hadn't seen much of his uncle after the age of eleven, and he had forgotten how crazy he was.

When they reached the farthest right apartment on the third floor, Iroh unlocked and opened the door.

"And welcome to your new home, Zuko!" Iroh bellowed, obviously overjoyed to have him there.

The apartment was a little dusty after having been left alone for roughly a week. There were many scrolls on the walls, some with paintings of fire, and others with flowers. The kitchen was along the wall to the left, and had three cupboards, a fridge, a sink, dishwasher, stove, and oven, along with two tabletops. The living room to the right had a three-seating couch along the wall next to the door and a TV directly across from it, with a small, dark, wooden coffee table with a pai sho board on top. Behind the TV was a small table with two seats, and two doors lay behind, in the middle of the room.

Zuko walked to the back and opened one door. Behind it was a bedroom, a futon messily made in the middle of it, with a large scroll behind it, having an old proverb written on it in Chinese characters: "You must look within yourself to save yourself, only then will your true self reveal itself."

Zuko scoffed, and opened the next door, leading to a small bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower.

"I have another futon I can set up in the-oh, I can't believe I left this room such a mess, I normally-" Iroh stuttered.

"Don't humor me, Uncle, I know you always leave this place a mess."

Iroh spluttered, and then started to laugh. A real, sincere laugh.

Zuko scratched the stitches on his arm, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

"Zuko? We're here-wake up," Iroh said gently, shaking Zuko's shoulder.

"Mmh? What?"

"We're at the school, you fell asleep on the ride," Iroh chuckled.

"Oh, I guess I'm not used to early mornings yet after the hospital," Zuko drawled sleepily.

Well, you aren't getting out of your first day of school because you're tired," Iroh sighed. "Did you remember your medication?"

Zuko nodded, reaching into the backseat of the car for his backpack.

"Good. Call me if you have any problems, I can always pick you up."

"Yup," Zuko yawned, reaching for the door handle and pulling the door open.

"Oh, and don't forget to walk to the shop today and not the apartment! I won't be home and I'm not supposed to leave you alone. I'd also like you to meet the workers there. They're your age, so you might get to be friends," Iroh smiled, "Have a nice day!"

"Sure," Zuko sighed before he slipped out of the car, closed the door, pulled his backpack over one shoulder, and started to trudge up the entryway into his new school.

* * *

"This is Zuko, and he's transferring into our class today. Introduce yourself, Zuko," the teacher said kindly.

"Well, my name's Zuko, and um, I like tea?"

"Don't sound so hesitant," the teacher chuckled. "Your seat's in the corner by the door."

Zuko walked down the first aisle to his seat, and slipped into it.

The teacher started into her lesson, and Zuko pulled a notebook and pencil out of his bag.

The boy sitting in front of him suddenly turned around as Zuko started to scratch notes onto his paper.

"Hey! So you're new here, huh? Why'd you move?"

"I'd rather not say," Zuko sighed.

"That's fine! My name's Sokka, and yours?"

The boy had brown hair tied into a ponytail, with the sides shaved off. He had tanned skin and blue eyes, which matched the horrendous amounts of blue he was wearing. Zuko cringed, he liked red better.

"Zuko. Weren't you listening?" he grumbled.

"Nope!" Sokka grinned, before turning back around.

Zuko listened to the teacher for a while, occasionally scratching something onto his notebook paper.

Finally, they were dismissed. Zuko put away grabbed his backpack and decided to carry his notebook.

"So, what's your next class?" Sokka strolled up to him and asked, just as Zuko was about to leave the classroom.

"Art."

"Do you know where that is?" Sokka asked.

Zuko shook his head, and Sokka took his hand.

"Then I'll lead you there! I have that class too," Sokka cheered.

If he had noticed Zuko's bandages, he didn't mention it.

After some wandering, a flight of stairs, and waving off some guy called 'The Duke', they finally made it to a classroom.

"Here we are!" Sokka said, turning around to smile at Zuko.

Zuko nodded and strolled into the art room, Sokka trailing behind.

Sokka sat down next to some girl, and Zuko was about to take the initiative to sit somewhere else, before Sokka called him over.

"Zuko, came sit with us! We're buddies now aren't we?"

"Buddies…?" Zuko said as he sat on the other side of the girl.

"Yeah! Buddies! Soon you two'll be as close as him and Boomerang," the girl drawled sarcastically.

"Oh, Katara don't be so-" Sokka started before he was cut off.

"Hey, aren't you the governor's son?" Katara said suspiciously.

Zuko paled.

Luckily, the teacher came in.

"Okay, today we have a new student! Zuko, meet the class. Class, meet Zuko," there was a light chuckle at the introduction before the teacher started. "Okay, so I know you guys were so pumped for the whole taking-notes-about-long-dead-boring-artists thing, but today, as per the entrance ceremony rules, we'll just be drawing!"

The class cheered, and everyone started to get out some paper and draw. Even the teacher was drawing, it seemed.

Zuko was a little dumbfounded. His school had never taken notes in art, much less having 'just be drawing' time. All they had done before was paint and sculpt, 'project stuff', as Ty Lee would have put it.

Zuko shook out of it, and opened the notebook he had carried to art from his previous class.

He sketched out a basic flower, and then started to add some details. He didn't stop until he was finished, even though everyone else, especially Sokka, was talking.

He only dropped his pencil when he could look upon his masterpiece. A daisy. He had drawn a daisy, which in the flower language meant innocence and hope. That felt wrong to Zuko, and he leaned back into his drawing.

"Wow, Zuko, that looks great!" Katara praised, Sokka whistling behind her.

"It's not done yet," Zuko mumbled as he decided what he wanted to do.

Thirty minutes later, when class was over, everyone handed their drawings into the teacher, as per a request made fifteen minutes earlier.

The teacher took Zuko's drawing.

Later, when he would actually have time to look at the drawings, he would see a day lily wrapped around a daisy.

The day lily was dying, and the daisy was on fire.

 **A/N: Just so you know day lilies are the Chinese emblem for mother. And, as was said before, daisies mean innocence and hope. I'm sure you can find out the meaning behind that by yourself.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Zuko, want to join us for lunch?" Sokka asked as they left their fourth period class.

"You and Katara? Sure," Zuko replied. He had already gotten more comfortable being around Sokka than with most of the people in his life. But, that's probably because he's never had many friends.

"Well, not just me and Katara, we'll have my buddy Aang, Toph, and-SUKI!" Sokka drawled, yelling out the last part when a red-haired girl walked by them.

Zuko was left bewildered and in the dust, having just been walked to his fifth period, yet not really knowing where to go from there. He shook off the shock from the piercing, loud screech just blasted in his ear and walked into his fifth period-math.

Zuko groaned. He had always been pressured to do his best, but even then that was only around a B. Which he got quite a beating for, and he blamed it all on math.

Another reason for his tired, low groan was the state of the room. It was a normal-sized classroom with desks situated in groups. Zuko hated when he had to sit in groups, that meant he had to participate, which also meant people getting a good look at his scar, or the bruises the littered his arms and face. The room was also equipped with posters depicting people making horrible math puns-obviously, this meant he had one of _those_ teachers.

Zuko didn't feel the need to elaborate on that.

He stood awkwardly in front of the door for a few minutes before the teacher walked in.

"What're you standing there for? Oh, you're the new student, aren't you?" a man said from behind Zuko.

"Yes."

"Well, don't just stand there, go on, sit with Katara over there," the man was obviously his teacher, but he just seemed too gloomy and unsmiling to be a teacher, or have the classroom that he did.

Zuko wandered to the back of the classroom, sitting down in the only two-person group in the room. Well, at least it was supposed to be that way, but it was only two people now that Zuko had joined, which meant Katara had been alone previously.

It didn't seem like it was because she had been left out, however, as a small young-looking (but still had to be a teenager, right?) boy was talking fervently to her, along with an (ironic) man-type character that had a goatee. The odd pair was completed as a trio with the addition of a normal-looking boy in an oddly long wheel chair, one of which Zuko had never seen before.

When Zuko sat down, class started, and while it seemed that the trio in front of them didn't want to stop talking, both Zuko and Katara took dedicated notes.

Eventually, class ended, and Zuko gathered his things. Katara was quicker than him, though, so he had to catch up to ask her, "Hi, Zuko here, and your brother asked if I could sit with you guys at lunch, but he ran off with some girl I assume is named 'Suki' and didn't tell me where you guys sit."

"Oh, you're sitting with us? Cool, follow me, and we can get there together," Katara said smoothly, barely looking at him.

A brown-haired boy with a piece of wheat grass in his mouth walked by them, and Katara seemed to shield her face as they moved down the hallway.

"Um, OK…"

"Did you say something?" Katara turned, and looked straight at him for the first time since second period.

"No, nothing," Zuko said. He knew what it was like to have to avoid people in the halls, he'd always stayed away from Azula in high school.


	5. Chapter 5

He'd made it to lunch. Only half a day, and he was surprised he'd made it to lunch.

"Hi, I'm Toph. This is Aang," she gestured to Sokka, who was on her left next to a red-headed girl, and was trying his best not to laugh. He pointed to a brown-haired boy across the table, whom Zuko assumed was Aang. "And this is Suki."

She pointed to a red haired girl sitting on her left. Zuko had seen this girl from behind when Sokka ran off earlier, so he recognized her.

"Um, I'm Zuko."

Suki and Aang tried their best not to stare, even though Katara was full-on glaring at him. Zuko wasn't completely sure why, but he had an inkling it might have something to do with his father.

"So, Zuko, tell us more about yourself, like maybe about your family or your favorite things to do. Or maybe your family," Katara almost growled.

She wasn't being very subtle about this, was all Zuko could think.

"Well, I moved here about a week ago to my uncle's and was reco-I mean, settling in for a few days before I came to school. I'm not even sure if it's permanent, all I know is that I'll be staying here a while," Zuko said, instinctively flinching back from Katara's disbelieving stare.

"So, who's your uncle?" Toph asked casually, obviously unaware of the tension between Zuko and Katara.

"Oh, his name's Iroh."

"Really?! I work for him at the tea shop!" Sokka shouted, jumping up in surprise, slamming his hands down on the table.

In his excitement and surprise, Zuko did the same, and asked, "Really?! Uncle was just talking about how he wanted me to meet you guys!"

"Holy shit, dude! We can hang out while me and Katara work! I'll show you the ropes and you can hang out! Was the shop closed because you were moving in?"

"Um, yeah."

"Wow, this is such a coincidence," Sokka said, scratching his head.

"I know."

"Wait, let's keep this thing going. Did you have a girlfriend you moved away from, or that moved away? I mean you're pretty good-looking, despite the," Sokka gestured to his right eye, "situation."

Sokka was quite gentle about it, and Zuko chuckled, already used to the stares and comments. "Yeah, I'm gonna guess you did too, then?"

"Yeah, she moved to Alaska. She was my first girlfriend. We were really close, but she was forced to get engaged by her family, and we haven't talked since then," Sokka quieted near the end, and Suki put an arm around his shoulder, which he leaned into.

"Um, that's rough buddy," Zuko mumbled awkwardly.

"Yeah, well, let's talk about something happier-" Aang started before Katara cut him off.

"No, no, let's keep this going, Aang! Hey, Zuko, is your mother dead?"

Zuko was shocked she was being so upfront about her second hand hatred for him. He lowered his head and nodded.

Sokka was shocked as well at her outburst, and rushed to quiet her, but she brushed him aside. "Do you have a father that works so late everyday that you never see him?"

Zuko nodded.

"Do you have no money?"

Zuko nodded.

"Bullshit! I know who you are! Your dad broke apart Aang's monk group just to make more money!"

Zuko just sat, quietly waiting out her angry rant.

"He had to grow hair and hide the religion he used to be so proud of! He had to go to school, he got bullied, and worst of all, he was left orphaned!" Katara sat, her eyes closing for a short time, breathing loud and fast, before continuing, "Your dad cleared out our tribe to make a mall! We live in a tiny apartment packed with five people! Me, Aang, my dad, Gran Gran, and Sokka! Why?! Why did your dad do this to us?! What did we do to deserve this? Tell me!" she cried.

Luckily, her group sat outside near the parking lot. There wasn't anybody to hear her enraged outburst.

The group sat quiet and dumbfounded for a minute until Sokka opened his mouth, "You mean? You're… _his_ son?"

Zuko nodded one last time before getting up and turning on his heel.

He shivered, rubbing his hands up and down his arms, why was it so cold suddenly?

He could distantly hear Sokka asking him if it's true, he could hear whispers of tentative questions from Aang, but everything felt so distant.

 _no. not here. not now. not after what just happened._

He shivered, he shaked, he ached for his razor.

 _they know who i am oh god oh god breath no one really gives a shit about you anyway oh god i'm having an anxiety attack breath breath its not working i'm alone again i'm suffocating i'm drowning where's my razor i need to stop the numbness it hurts i can't breath-_

But he felt someone's hand on his back, soothing him. He looked around, his breathing evening out. His chest hurt and he was still scared, but he felt better. When he looked at Sokka's face, Zuko could feel the panic rise in his chest again, but he smothered it as best he could and scrambled for his backpack.

He reached into the front pocket and pulled out a bottle of pills. With shaking hands, he dropped two white capsules onto his palm, and swallowed them.

What he didn't notice was who had been rubbing his back, and more importantly, that he had ridden up his sleeves, and scratched open his scars.

His arms bled slowly, in small red streams down his arms, soaking his bandages. He looked at them, shocked.

When Katara reached for him, her hand over her mouth, he let her bandage them with quick precision.

The bandages came from him of course, he never left without a fresh roll of gauze or bandages.

Sokka sat beside him on the and kept quiet, while the rest of the group sat back where they were on a picnic blanket.

Zuko had just met them, yet unintentionally he had revealed so much.

He sat in silence for the rest of the lunch period.


	6. Chapter 6

Zuko lay, splayed out on his bed, his dream reeling through his mind.

" _Useless!"_

He clutched his chest, breathing erratic and hard.

" _You are worthless."_

He remembered, though he wished he didn't.

" _Oh, is Zukie-baby crying?"_

And brought the razor to his skin. 

* * *

Zuko's wrist itched.

"How's life treatin' ya man?" Sokka asked as Zuko wandered into the front of the tea shop.

"Like hell," Zuko groaned, angrily dropping his homework onto a booth table.

Sokka laughed, "I could tell, from that massive pile of homework."

Zuko hummed, acknowledging what Sokka said, while pulling out a pencil, notebook, and his assigned reading book.

"Oh, we don't have to read that in standard," Sokka noted, looking at the cover of Zuko's book.

"Thank your lucky stars, that book is just about some depressed kid walking around New York in the middle of the night," Katara sighed, walking out of the back of the shop. "Why couldn't we read Shakespeare's brilliant works, or an influential novel that changed something important?"

Zuko bristled, "This book is a modern masterpiece! It is relatable, poignant, and a good read!"

Katara and Zuko had had many of the same arguments over the week of their acquaintance. After the first "disagreement" they had, the conflict between them boiled down to nothing but petty banter, and they became fast friends, though they would likely never call each other that.

They glared at each other for a while longer, before turning away, huffing, and going back to their respective work like always.

Zuko scratched his wrist, and started reading. He answered the inference questions, and wrote some notes on what happened in the chapter, noting symbolism and character development.

While Sokka and Katara tended to the occasional customer, Zuko did his homework. Then, when Sokka was on break, Zuko would help him.

"How do you do this?!" Sokka whined.

"It's just algebra, there's only one answer you need to-oh, you're at _that_ part of it now," Zuko said, in a wary voice that scared Sokka.

"What part?! Is it going to get harder?! How can it get any harder?!"

Zuko smirked devilishly, putting on a scary face, and said, "Oh yes~ much harder. You won't even be able to sleep at night it'll take you so long to finish your homework!"

Sokka looked like he was about to pass out, but then Suki and Toph scooted their way into the booth.

"Oh, don't scare him," Suki cooed, patting Sokka's shaking shoulder, "I'll help you with your homework, Sokka. Then you won't have to listen to this scary man spout lies anymore."

Toph giggled and reached out a fist into Zuko's general direction, which Zuko bumped, grinning.

Zuko and Sokka continued on their homework, Sokka aided by Suki, and when his break was over Sokka moaned, "I think Zuko was right, I still don't get it."

Both Toph and Zuko doubled over laughing as Sokka trudged back to the cash register for work, switching places with Katara.

Katara walked to their booth and sat down, now on her own break.

Before she could say anything, though, Toph cut her off, "Okay, so I've been sitting here doing nothing for a while now, where is your uncle?"

"He's at home. Caught a fever staying out too late last night with some friends of his."

"So I came here for nothing?!" Toph cried.

"Yup," Zuko replied.

"Dammit! I'm going home! See you guys later," Toph said.

Suki quickly followed after her, acting as her temporary seeing-eye-dog while Toph's real one was at the vet.

Zuko continued on his homework next to Katara for a while before Katara went back to work too, and he was left sitting alone.

Zuko scratched his wrist fervently, getting annoyed with his social studies homework. He didn't know why he bothered with homework anymore, it wasn't like he lived with his father anymore.

He started to tap his foot and shake his knee. He was getting restless. Going this long without smoking or drinking was driving him crazy.

Suddenly, he stood up, "Shit!" he yelled, before storming out of the booth, and out of the shop, annoyed out of his mind.

He stormed down the dark streets, and turned down dark alleyways, hoping to find somebody to bum a cigarette off of. Suddenly, he saw a group of kids about his age all smoking, and he walked right up to them.

"Could I bum a smoke off you guys?"

"Why not just get your own?" one of them asked, annoyed.

"Because I'm underage and can't get them from a store. I'll even pay you. Honestly, I'm fucking desperate."

The one who talked to him before sighed, handing him a pack, and said, "Five bucks."

Zuko dug out his wallet, paid the boy, and walked away. He dug out a lighter from his shoe where he always kept it, and lit up a smoke.

"Ugh, this isn't my brand," he grumbled, but he was so content with the smoke running down his throat and the nicotine flowing into his veins.

He took a long drag and rolled up his sleeves, revealing multiple scars, and a few fresh scabs. A ring of color came out from underneath his sleeve, revealing a tattoo. He stared at it for a while, and decided he wanted a new one, one on his wrist.

He hummed, and pushed the butt into his wrist, grimacing.

Now he wanted a drink.


End file.
